England and their captain Alastair Cook have so far played this Test match to perfection, but that high point was tarnished after the end of Wednesday’s play when James Anderson had a verbal exchange with Ajinkya Rahane India's resolute No 5.

Anderson, who faces a disciplinary hearing on Friday for his alleged push on Ravindra Jadeja in the first Test at Trent Bridge, had taken five for 53 in India’s first innings here. But his failure to add to that tally in their second, which included him spilling two sharp caught-and-bowled chances, saw his anger boil over into a verbal exchange with Rahane after stumps had been drawn.

Umpire Rod Tucker had a word with the bowler as he left the field, though there was no suggestion that his charge sheet would be added to when Gordon Lewis, ICC’s Judicial Commissioner, hears his case.

If he is found guilty of the Level Three offence India have cited him for, Anderson faces a ban of up to four matches, something he appears resigned to after continuing to chip away at India’s players here.

Anderson’s spat, a particularly stupid thing to do in his predicament, blighted a day which saw England on top and their spinners doing the damage.

So far Moeen Ali has taken two wickets in India’s second innings, which had limped along to 112 for four by the close of day four. That leaves 90 overs for England to take the six remaining wickets and level the series, and Moeen to take a few more and quell the notion that there are no decent spinners in the land.

After England’s prompt dispatch of India’s first innings in the morning, Cook did not enforce the follow-on. His decision was based not on giving Moeen the best conditions to bowl in but on resting Anderson and Stuart Broad, his bankers who had just taken eight of the wickets to fall.

Yet, since Cook declared 20 minutes before tea with England 444 runs ahead, Moeen has been his man. After Broad got matters rolling with the opportunistic run-out of Murali Vijay, and with Joe Root adding another for the spin bowlers’ union when he had Shikhar Dhawan caught at slip, Moeen accounted for Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli, two of the more vaunted among India’s batsman.

Both were out in similar fashion too, edging balls they played inside the line of, in the expectation of spin. If that sounds slightly damning it is not intended. Mooen spun several balls, especially out of the rough to the left-handers, and he kept up the pressure on left and right equally well. Pujara’s dismissal was aided by a wonderfully sharp catch by Chris Jordan low to his right at slip.

If that was a big scalp, Kohli’s end was particularly well received by Moeen’s team-mates as he had begun to look as if he might repay those who feel him to be the stand-out talent in the Indian team. But like Pujara he thrust hard at one that did not spin, the feathered edge wobbling a little in Jos Buttler’s gloves before settling the batsman’s fate.

In between those two wickets Root got rid of Dhawan, another beginning to live up to pre-series billing. A powerful striker, Dhawan got off the mark with a four and struck five more in his 37. Moeen should have had him lbw when he was on 20, but umpire Marais Erasmus did not line up the way Hawk-Eye did, the latter having the ball hitting middle stump four inches from the top.

His eventual demise came from a classical off-spinner’s dismissal; Root from around the wicket getting one to spin out of the rough and find the edge of his bat whereupon Jordan took a regulation catch at slip.

It has taken a long time for Cook to be able to trust Moeen but the spinner has won him over with increasingly impressive spells. He still gets bored too quickly ploughing a particular furrow, but he is learning and while he is not Graeme Swann, he is not the ugly duckling either.

For Cook a series-levelling win would be vital, too, as it would hand England crucial impetus with two matches to play, the first of them at Old Trafford where the fast, bouncy nature of the pitch should make them favourites.

Before he declared, he would have been mindful that India once chased 406 to beat the West Indies in 1976. But batsmen were more studious then and unafraid to let the dot balls mount, something the current generation feel discomfited by.

Cook made an unbeaten 70 in the rush to declare, though he played the anchor as Gary Ballance, Ian Bell and Joe Root all flung the bat. For the second time in the match Ballance was given out when he was not, which meant he could have made many more than the 194 runs he scored in spite of being sawn off by the umpires.

England’s positive intent meant that Pankaj Singh, who finished with match figures of nought for 189, posted the worst bowling return in history for a debutant, beating the nought for 164 Sohail Khan registered for Pakistan against Sri Lanka in 2009.

It was wholly undeserved, too, and if Anderson wants to know what frustration is he might want to walk a few overs in Pankaj’s shoes. Then, instead of biting his opponent’s heads off when things do not go his way, he might bite his lip.